Bio-Link Summer Fellows Forum:
Preparing for Bio-Link’s Renewal
June 4, 2013
Discussion: What are the biotechnology/biological
sciences industry trends in your communities that will
impact how you train students and the focus of your
training activities?
3-4 trends per group –
Keep in mind that:
Bio-Link’s theme is Advancing Student Success. Focus is
on students—mainly but not exclusively at community
and technical colleges—as prospective skilled technicians
whose work will be vital to the biotechnology industry.
We define a successful student as one who acquires
advanced knowledge and technical skills such that he or
she:
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 Is able to perform entry level biotech industry tasks
with minimal industry training;
 Is able over time to assume increased responsibility
and perform tasks of increasing complexity; and
 Understands the range of ways in which the acquired
skills can be employed in a career.
Bio-Link’s strategy includes four components
(objectives):
A. Provide students and faculty with new insights into
paths to successful careers.
B. Build new and strengthen existing coalitions and
partnerships among educators across life sciences
disciplines.
C. Expand and strengthen efforts to identify and
disseminate effective curriculum and help faculty
improve the quality of instruction.
D. Build closer relationships between educators and
industry and develop new measures of student
outcomes to document the maturity of
community/technical college education and training.
Bio-Link’s activities to achieve these objectives are
summarized in the table on the following page.
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Bio-Link Strategic
Components
Bio-Link Activities
A
B
C
D
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e New and
then Closer
Insigh Streng Curric Educa
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Stude Coaliti and Indust
ons Instru
ry
nts
and
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ction Relati
onFacult Partne
r-ships
ships
y
Long-standing
Activities
1. Professional
x
X
development
2. Equipment Depot
X
x
3. Clearinghouse
X
4. Networking
X
X
X
X
5. Website
X
X
X
X
information services
6. National Program
x
X
Survey
7. Consulting
X
x
x
3
Activities Initiated
in 2008
1. Courses in a box
2. Online courses
3. Web-based
interactive
community
4. Career website
New Activities
1. Community
college articulation
2. High school
outreach
3. Expanded
engagement
w/industry
4. New leadership
initiatives
5. New strategic
partnerships
6. New publications
7. Student
internships
8. Life sciences info
sharing
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
x
X
x
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
x
x
4
X
x
9. New student
outcome measures
X
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Brief descriptions of new activities that will be
initiated with Center renewal:
1. Community college articulation [Models for
articulation between community colleges so that
students can take online courses from any community
college and receive credit at the college where they are
enrolled, which suggests a possible need for a catalogue
of all online courses and perhaps work on a model for
relevant articulation agreements.] (A, B)
2. High school outreach [New focus on getting high
school students to consider technical careers and make
use of the Bio-Link careers website; advocating and
providing examples of dual credit courses (high school
and community college credit for same course); a
publication on best practices for working with high
schools.] (A, B)
3. Expanded engagement with industry [Getting industry
volunteers to mentor community colleges on best ways
to gain industry recognition as sources of skilled
technicians; identifying specific community college
projects that might interest industry; sponsoring
exemplar analyses of economic benefits to industry of
hiring community college graduates (cf. Hank Stern
analysis at Genentech).] (D)
4. New leadership initiatives [Decentralizing Center
leadership and activities to projects pursued on a
regional basis, with Bio-Link oversight and grant
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assistance ; possibly creating a non-profit spin-off;
planning for a new generation of leadership in order to
avoid a “succession crisis”] (B)
5. New strategic partnerships [Identifying activities that
should be considered in order to strengthen biotech
program effectiveness but which Bio-Link cannot
undertake, and identifying and working with partner
organizations that are able and willing to undertake
those activities.] (B)
6. New publications [Writing “Quick Briefs” covering
Bio-Link work and related topics of interest (cf. Project
Kaleidoscope); co-authoring articles with industry
representatives and publishing in journals aimed at
desired audiences; asking active Bio-Link participants
to write about what they are doing and publish brief
essays on the Bio-Link web site.] (ALL)
7. Student internships [Work with industry to create more
student internship opportunities and help to publicize
those opportunities at community/technical colleges
located near those companies.] (A, D)
8. Interactive life sciences information sharing [Bio-Link
would serve as “midwife” to web-based interactive
information sharing among the life sciences, including
their substantive interests and current work, the
relationship of their work to biotechnology and other
life sciences disciplines, the role of technicians in their
disciplines, education and skill requirements for entry
level employment, possible career paths, etc. A link to
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these discussions would be placed on the Bio-Link
career website.] (A, B, C)
9. New measures of student outcomes [Development of a
new national longitudinal student database using
statistics provided by the National Center for Education
Statistics and other sources; using Linked-in to
illustrate student relationships to instructors and
institutions and track alumni career trajectories; student
and alumni feedback on the Bio-Link web site (how
they used Bio-Link-provided information to help
identify the best courses to take, employment and
career success, etc.); obtaining better information from
community colleges on student transfers and job
placement; identifying multiple student credentials
earned by students and alumni and the range of learning
outcomes they represent.] (D)
Input from community re industry trends
What are the trends?
How or will that impact training students?
Trends:
On-line courses
Genomics
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Chip based sequencing
Biofuels
Sample prep
Automation & software driven instruments
Stem cells
Flow cytometry
Madison region – Madison College is the only game in
town & ACC same thing
California colleges compete with each other
ACC – impt. to know what emerging trends are in
order to meet market demands – meeting the needs of
startups can help.
ACC gets high end equipment to train students &
lets industry use this equipment
This is their niche
Work with advisory board (seriously) and get them to
agree that ACC is an impt. solution for training
LB:
California & Massachusetts
A trend is to curb hiring
So how do you get your students in the door & compete
with students from 4 yr schools that lack skills
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Make connections with employment agencies to get
students in temp. jobs
Easier to place people into production positions
Companies take people out of pool for validation
positions
Put QC & QA into your programs
Root cause analysis (Pareto curves – 80% thing)
More outsourcing & changes in support industries (we
buy more pre-made supplies than we used to, like media)
EK:
Need an industry presence in order to ID and define
industry trends
Programs with a good industry presence could mentor
other programs with involving industry
& Bio-Link could help sponsor these kinds of connections
HB?: UC Davis area
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Ag biotech huge
Natural pest resistance
Crop science
Stem cell manufacturing
JP:
Portland Community College, OR
Sectors of the industry & job types
In Oregon – device, diagnostics biopharma, food industry
is anticipating huge need and don’t have anyone that
knows about FDA or how to set up quality systems
Job types: quality in all sectors
Fill & finish, distribution
More contract labor
Warn students that jobs may not be permanent, working
with contract agencies is impt.
SK: Navy & DOD interest in biofuels
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Stem cells
DNA sequencing – high throughput is becoming common
People who are broadly trained in basic lab skills will
have more opportunities
Postbacs can be trained & go towards lab manager
positions
KD: Laney College
Florida, Texas, Montana
Small molecules
Retention
Agricultural trends –
How do new trends impact curriculum development?
Don’t want to sacrifice basic skills for trendy things
Medical devices
VW:
Salt Lake City, others
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Quality, regulations
Some people think this is a soft skill – but that is wrong
There is a nationwide demand for regulatory affairs
professionals
They have diverse backgrounds (there is a professional
society www.raps.org)
Pay is good because they have to know how to comply
with regulatory agencies
Skills are tools for people to use to execute critical
thinking in their jobs, take what they know and evaluate
when techniques are appropriate & when not
K:
Kentucky & Bay area (San Francisco)
Partnering between community colleges & high schools
to build pipelines
Kentucky is a start up environment – what motivates
small companies to work with you?
More agricultural
JP:
Puerto Rico, North Carolina, Kansas
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Biomanufacturing
Regulatory issues
Back to basics
Data management
Omics
Vaccines
What are the boundaries of knowledge between 2 & 4 yr
programs?
Professional science masters – more formal level
May want to pay attention to what they are doing
K:
High school in Massachusetts, Austin
Four trends
Mass – tons of local biotech industries, but not lots of tech
high schools
Biomedical devices, clinical research
Start up areas: entrepreneurship skills, manufacturing
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Soft skills – what it means to be a good employee
Merrit college & Kentucky, San Antonio
Recruitment –
Partnerships with industry
What is happening in science?
Cloning (i.e. humans)
Bioethics
Robotics
Next goals:
Generate networks to work on shared problems
Ex: equipment depot network, CXOs, high school, etc.
Identify projects for these networks & connect to BioLink, funding would go to those schools but they would
still be connected to Bio-Link
Want connection for all different projects AND a
commitment to continuing working together
Doing more to make sure that industry knows we exist
How to let people know about national job boards
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